


Running for Home

by MyDarlingClementine



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Brotherly Bonding, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Klaus Hargreeves Gets A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Number Five | The Boy Gets A Hug, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Post-Season/Series 02, Soft Number Five | The Boy, also i'm terrible at writing jokes, no beta we die like ben, re-do for season 1 episode 5, sorry about that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27219679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyDarlingClementine/pseuds/MyDarlingClementine
Summary: One-shot of Klaus and Five bonding (post S2) because gods and monsters do both of these boys need a hug! Also I am sad that Five missed out on the opportunity to bond with Klaus in S1E5 when Klaus returns from Vietnam, so I'm giving them both a mulligan.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz, Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 7
Kudos: 180





	Running for Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is post S2 in 2019 and still in the same timeline from 1960s but there are no Sparrows in this story and its some nebulous time later where they have caught up on each other's lives a bit.

Five felt a twinge of déjà vu as he stood in Klaus’s doorway, knocking on the doorframe. “You ok?” he called.

Klaus blinked his eyes. He was staring at a piece of paper, which he crumpled and threw on the bed. “Oh, hey Five. Yeah, of course, I’m peachy keen,” he said in a voice that made it clear he was neither peachy nor keen.

Five walked into the room slowly. “You want to tell me about it?”

Klaus pulled into himself, his fingers moving unconsciously to the dogtags around his neck. “What is there to tell? Dave didn’t die in Vietnam. I’m happy for him.” Again, Klaus’s voice was at odds with the words.

“Klaus, I know you’re not happy. You’re not fooling anyone with that face. Well, maybe you’d fool Luther,” Five amended. “But you’re not fooling me.”

Klaus threw his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. Five could see his adams apple move as he swallowed heavily. “Dave was…my everything. But this Dave…I was _nothing_ to him. Less than nothing. Just some crazy guy bothering him in a diner.”

He pulled his knees up and hugged them, just as Five used to remember him doing as a kid.

Five went to fill the space left by Klaus’s legs, sitting down on the bed carefully. He picked up the crumpled newspaper obituary, smoothing it out and setting it on the table besides Klaus’s bed. “You did everything you could, Klaus." Five's voice was uncharacteristically gentle. "He didn’t die in the war – you made that happen. You gave him a life.”

“I gave him a life,” Klaus choked out the words. He laughed, but it was not a happy sound. “I made him enlist in the army sooner. I thought he’d die, Five. Just like before. But he didn’t. He didn’t die on that hill. But he didn’t….know me. He had a _life._ A family. A wife. A kid. A whole life. Without me.” Tears were running down Klaus’s face freely now.

“And all I have of him is ten months in the jungle and these stupid dogtags.” Klaus went to rip them off. Five put his hand gently on Klaus’s arm.

“Klaus,” Five said quietly. “I’m sorry. I really am.”

Klaus swallowed. “I should be fucking glad, you know? Glad that someone I love got to live. But I just feel miserable.”

Klaus suddenly reached over and pulled Five into a hug, sobbing into his shoulder. Five felt his brother’s arms wrap around him, and he awkwardly placed his own around Klaus’s shoulders, patting him gently as he sobbed. Hot tears ran down Five’s neck and soaked his collar. He didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing.

A few minutes later, Klaus pulled back, pulling his arms to place them on Five’s shoulders. He rested his forehead against Five’s. Another thing that he would do when they were kids. Being this close to Klaus, his smell, and the feel of his forehead against his own ripped Five through with a wave of nostalgia. “I’m sorry, Klaus,” he muttered again, uselessly.

“You know what the worst part is, Five-o?” Klaus whispered. “I can’t even conjure him. Even if I wanted to. Because all that’s here is a ghost who remembers a crazy cult leader who bought pink paint.”

Five winced, and his eyes suddenly felt hot and wet. “I know, Klaus,” he said, his eyes screwing shut. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to fix it. I really am.”

“I know.” Klaus finally broke the contact and leaned back against the pillows, wiping his eyes. “I just miss him so much.”

They sat there for an unknown time, both lost in their thoughts.

Finally, Klaus spoke again. “You know he was the only person who ever said 'I love you.' I didn’t know how much I wanted to hear those words until I did. And now I’ll never hear them again.”

Again, Five didn’t know what to say to that. Growing up with a warm and cuddly father and a robot mother, there wasn’t a lot of modeling of good emotional behavior for the Hargreeves siblings. Five had only ever said those words to Dolores, and when she said them back to him it had been enough at the time. But he didnt think any of these thoughts would be comforting to Klaus, so instead he just sat on the bed and waited for Klaus to speak again.

“I’m glad you’re back, Five,” Klaus said, suddenly. “I really, really am. We all are. Even if we can be dicks about it sometimes.”

Five smiled and scoffed at that last part. “Hey, I can be just as big a dick as any of you. Bigger,” he amended with an eyebrow waggle, a lame attempt to get Klaus to laugh.

Klaus took the bait and rewarded Five with a small but genuine chuckle “Says the man who’s feet don’t even touch the floor.” He was right- while sitting on the bed, Five's feet dangled a few inches above the floor.

Five tried to scowl, but instead he laughed. Klaus joined in, and the sound loosened some of the pressure in Five's chest.

“Five, I know we never say this type of stuff, but you were a good kid brother to me. Oh, don’t get me wrong. You could be a self-righteous asshole sometimes.” He gave Five a wicked grin, and they both knew it was the truth. “But I know you tried your best. I love you, Five.”

Five stared at his brother for a moment. Then, he cocked his eyebrow and gave his brother a smirk that had a real smile underneath. “I love you, too, Klaus.”

“But if you tell anyone I said that I _will_ kick your ass.”


End file.
